Bye bye Ponds - Doctor Who 7x05 "The Angels Take Manhattan" Review

Uhm... I just watched the Ponds leave Doctor Who. I would lie if I said I'm not sad. I would also lie if I said I'm not disappointed. To be honest, my expectations for “The Angels Take Manhattan” were pretty high. I thought I would be in a puddle of tears by the end of this episode. I should have known better. Don't get me wrong. Moffat tried. He just didn't fully succeed.
But let's start from the beginning.
Oh and it was a promising beginning. Some of you might know that in the past years I have developed a love for all things film noir. So, when the episode began with a film noir-ish voice over account (written on a typewriter, oh how I love that noise) by a quite handsome P.I. (Garner, I think) - well, I was hooked. Or maybe I just like a guy in a fedora. Who knows? Or more important: Who cares? Add to that that it would be an episode featuring the weeping angels, some of my favourite DW villains... this just had to be good. (And we ignore the fact that the guy hiring that P.I. looked to me like a mixture of German ex-chancellor Helmut Kohl and Michail Gorbatschow in an Al Capone outfit) The introduction had the proper noir feel mixed with some DW excitement. Gotta leave that Moffat, he did that brilliantly. Although I presume that Nick Hurran, the director of this episode, did have his fair share in creating the atmosphere as well. He did great too. So when P.I. Garner found the old version of himself in that seedy apartment block and then was trapped by the weeping angels, fleeing to the roof where we see the Statute of Liberty, probably world's biggest weeping angel, looming above him... Come on, this just had to be a great episode. Unfortunately lots of the atmosphere broke after the credits and our P.I. didn't show up again... making it a... well... alright episode.
But maybe that's just me. I still enjoyed the Doctor and the Ponds hanging out in Central Park, the Doctor annoying Amy by reading his noir crime novel (that looks a lot like a Raymond Chandler one, but obviously isn't) out loud, Amy and Rory being ridiculously cute while the Doctor acts like a child embarrassed by his parents and Rory going to get some coffee. My alarm bells went off as soon as the Doctor mentioned the female femme fatale protagonist of his novel was named “Melody Malone”. Melody? That just had to mean River Song. (I usually like being right, but that was one of the few occasions that being right meant nothing good). And... I think I gotta say sorry in advance because this is where my complaining begins.... I thought the whole “Amy is getting older” bit was a bit pointless. She's no older than Rory and nobody commented on him getting older. It's been two and a half years since Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill first appeared on Doctor Who and they have not and could not have aged that much. I know it's been longer for the Ponds. What was it? Ten years? You never really know with those time travel shows. It's all way too wibbly wobbly timey wimey (and don't think I hadn't noticed the “timey wimey” mention in this episode – well played, Moffat, especially since it was you who first brought it up in series 3 and “Blink”, the first episode featuring the weeping angels). And yes, he brought up and tried to explain the importance of the ageing bit later on in the episode (which didn't make me like it more) but let me get to this... later. As far as the Doctor's “I hate endings” (and ripping last pages out of books) goes – it was nice as a foreshadowing, although not needed. And I can see the Doctor disliking endings, because he's experienced a few. Although those are rather goodbyes, not endings of stories. And... I didn't really buy it. Because – maybe it was actually mentioned or it's just my personal head canon – I think the Doctor is or must be a sucker for happy endings and for him to hate endings in general just makes no sense to me. Plus: “Books – the best weapons in the world!” (DW 2x02 “Tooth and Claw”). Why then would you rip out pages. That is never ok. What I did like – for a change – was the idea that everything that's going to happen next is also featured in the novel. That was a nice touch. (Oh, btw., Rory, regarding your “Only you could fancy someone in a book.” comment: You have absolutely no idea how many people fancy fictional characters. No idea whatsoever!)
Oh yeah, and then Rory – dear, unsuspecting Rory – gets zapped back in time by a weeping angel and meets... River Song. Objectively, River Song does not make an episode bad. But for me, it does. I didn't mind her when she first appeared in series 4. It was fine. She was in two episodes and I thought I would never have to see her again. Hey, she died after all! (Looking a lot younger than she does now, but let's just attribute that to some timey wimey stuff and the fact that Alex Kingston isn't immune to ageing while we only get to meet younger versions of River as times goes on. That's not a point of critique, I'm reasonable enough to know that it's inevitable.) It was still ok when she showed up in series 5. I even started to develop some sympathy for her there. When series 6 really transformed into “Doctor, who? - The River Song Show” and River first happened to be Amy's and Rory's daughter and then became the Doctor's wife.... I was done with this show for a while. If I had to name my least favourite series of Doctor Who it would definitely be series 6 and River Song is one of the main reasons for that. Also, Steven Moffat's obsession with her. Seriously. Is there any episode written by Moffat that does not at least reference her? And every episode featuring her was written by Moffat. Steven, it's time to let go. What really bugs me as well is the way in which River (Alex Kingston) calls the Ponds “Mum/ Dad”  - what I hate even more is the inconsistency of it that I noticed for the time really in this episode because she sometimes referred to them as “Amy/ Rory” too. Which makes no sense if she calls them “Mum/ Dad” on other occasions. Especially now that they know. “Sweetie” has begun to really get on my nerves too, and the whole domestic husband/wife stuff between the Doctor and her. Yes, they got married, thanks to Moffat and I hate it (for various reasons but let me write an extra rent on that, it's gonna be long), but it would not be as bad if he did not constantly shove it into our faces. In the most blatant way possible. In some other shows, an occasional joke on the domestic side would be endearing, but everything gets used up eventually and thus becomes annoying, plus: this is the Doctor we're talking about here. And it's just way out of character for him. It comes across as really ooc and it only gets worse with the age difference between Matt Smith and Alex Kingston (aka Mrs. Robinson). So, thanks to Steven Moffat my dislike for River Song has gone so far that I cannot enjoy an episode with her in it. And the plot of “The Angels Take Manhattan” would have worked well without her. She was not actually needed. And her absence would have made this episode so much better. But back to the plot.
The whole “you mustn't read ahead” in the book (aka “Spoilers!”) also made total sense to me. Because once you know what is supposed to be going to happen, you either try to work towards it, or to change it. Both would be bad, because it would mess with the natural course of events. And the mention of “once you know what's coming it's written in stone” interlaced with that shot of Rory's name on a gravestone (middle name: Arthur – I see what you did there) was really nice. Good use of sound and visuals.
I'm not sure about the whole thing with the Doctor not being able to land his TARDIS in the time where Rory's been zapped to... I don't remember an occasion when the Doctor was not able to do something like that (maybe in Classic Who?) and it was not really that well explained in this episode. Plus, this while Chinese vase landing lights thing it suddenly worked? Without problems? I think it might have made sense if the episode was built upon the Doctor not being able to get to where Rory is at all. Or only in the last minute, finally. But the way it worked here, it was another thing that just seemed a bit pointless to me. It created a quick “oh no, the Doctor's not gonna be able to go save Rory” only got it to work about 5 minutes later. Now, if you only have 42-45 minutes to tell a whole story – is it really wise to just waste 5 of them? For something that was not important to either the plot or character development. And in my opinion those wasted minutes could have been put to good use giving the the Ponds a bigger, better and more emotional goodbye.
Ok, let's go on where River does not try anything to help her dad, Rory, when that collector (Mr. Kohl/Gorbatschow/Capone) has him locked up in the basement with some weeping angel babies – cherubs – and only a box of matches. By that time, River is still free. She did not even say a word! She did not seem to care. In her defense, she might not have known what's down there, but she could have figured it would not be something pleasant. Poor Rory. And he's never actually encountered the weeping angels before. He does not know about the whole “Don't blink” thing! I'm not going to comment on the fact that there suddenly are baby weeping angels. We never had them before. It's also a bit illogical that there would be the need for babies. I mean, yeah, they could be weeping angels, but just because they have the form of a cherub statue as opposed to another one does not make them real babies, does it? They're just normal angels. (I find this so weird because the Doctor, who should know things like that, also refers to them as “baby angels”)
 And then River herself gets trapped by that chipped and chained angel. Which does neither zap her into the past nor make her turn into an angel herself (remember Amy in “Time of Angels/ Flesh and Stone”?). But thankfully we hear TARDIS noises and “just you wait till my husband gets home” (I think I mentioned my opinion on remarks like that above) and the landing TARDIS basically electrocutes the collecting criminal into unconsciousness. “Sorry I'm late honey. Traffic was hell” - picture me rolling my eyes and fake vomiting. And the way in which the Doctor stood really close behind River – which in other shows would be the perfect picture of seduction (plus bedroom voice) – again: so ooc for the Doctor. At least it so doesn't fit the (or my?) image of the Doctor that the show has been creating over nearly 50 years now. That “booping” of River's nose was more like the Doctor again. And... “Doctor who?” reference! Still always a delight. But... good news: River is already a professor now which means it won't be too long until she dies in the library. And before that: Let's go an break River's wrist! Now, I'm usually not a violent person but I've come to be so annoyed by that character that hurting her always seems like a good idea.
So, they use chapter titles (because they cannot read the actual book)  - good one, Amy! - to find where Rory should have been in the basement but has been zapped away (as we find out a bit later, to that place where we last saw P.I. Garner in the introduction). And the Doctor spoils himself by reading the last two chapter titles “Death at Winter Quay” and “Amelia's Last Farewell” - again with the foreshadowing. He gets mad and tells River to get her wrist out of the angel's grip without breaking it (as opposed to what was written in the novel). I still think the episode could have worked well without River, but having River there, this scene was the one that made the best use of her in my opinion. Because the Doctor is getting mad shows how afraid he is that something is gonna happen to the Ponds. And he does not want that. He does not want to lose them. Instead of resigning and being sad, he becomes mad because he knows he actually cannot change what's written there. Instead, he wants River to change it, to change the course of events by not breaking her wrist. It's his last and only hope. But she fails. River has to break her own wrist (as written in the novel), then tries to hide it from the Doctor – he finds out of course, though. And I thought it was because she does not want the Doctor to know that she failed in changing the future, but her reason for hiding it is that “when one's in love with an ageless god who insists on the face of a 12-year-old, one does one's best to hide the damage”. So much wrong with that. Hiding it because she does not want to seem vulnerable? Damaged? And, as it seems when she explains to Amy later, aged? That's not something that would matter to the Doctor. You can be vulnerable. He would not like humans as much as he does if he didn't accept that. Yes, they often put a brave face on for him, but... well, oftentimes they simply are that brave. And being hurt is not a sign of weakness for him. I also won't believe that the Doctor cares about age. And because he doesn't like endings, he would switch his companions for younger ones. He'd never do that. He'd never voluntarily give up on one of his companions. And he traveled with people of pretty much all ages – he would have taken young Amelia, but he also had Wilfred Mott and Brian Williams on board and never commented on their age. The way River delivered this it just seems to be like Demi Moore trying to look and act younger for Ashton Kutcher so he won't leave her for someone younger and prettier. River just has a problem with getting older while the Doctor's face is getting younger. That's plain vanity. And the Doctor certainly is no “god” either. He is flawed, and he knows it. He certainly does not see himself as a god. And River seeing him as a god – well, how does that make her look her? She's supposed to come across as a strong, independent female and Moffat does so many things that make me, as a woman, cringe because she's so fixated on the Doctor almost like Twilight's Bella is on Edward. And now she even worships him as a god? That's just too much. But the worst moment was when the Doctor uses regeneration energy to heal her wrist. Is that even possible?! When has he done that before?! We saw people die on this show! And also: Why didn't he use his regeneration energy to heal Donna's brain so he would not have to wipe her memories? I mean... WHAT THE EFFING FUCK, MOFFAT?! What are you doing? (And I so hope this won't be a new thing: the Doctor has an actual healer.)
But let's comment on the better stuff as well. Like Amy finding Rory as well as old!Rory at Winter Quay. And yes, old, dying Rory being so happy to just be able to see Amy once more before dying made me tear up a little bit. Or would have, if the moment hadn't been over already before I was fully able to process it and interrupted by the Doctor's explanation of the building being a food source for the angels. I liked Amy taking (our) Rory's hand saying she “won't let them [the angels] take him” and them running away together. At this point I stopped caring about what happened the Doctor and River.
The Ponds on the roof. Oh my god, the Ponds on the roof. Best scene of the whole episode, if you ask me. I loved Rory's dry “I always wanted to visit the Statue of Liberty. I guess she got impatient”. And then his plan to actually kill himself by jumping off the roof to create a paradox, kill the angels and hopefully come back to live because of the paradox.
Amy: “Stop it! You'll die.”
Rory: “Yeah, twice. In the same building, on the same night. Who else could do that?”
and also:
Amy: “You think you'll just come back to life?”
Rory: “When don't I?”
Oh god, Rory. I love you and your dark humor (especially concerning your unique ability to die over and over again). But that was the scene that then truly made me tear up. Amy's panic at realizing what Rory was about to do. And Arthur Darvill and Karen Gillan were brilliant in that scene. It was not the dialogue and action so much as the emotion in their acting. You could feel how much these two characters love each other. So much that either of them would die for the other.
And then Rory telling Amy to push him off the roof if she really loves him, her “if it was me, could you do it?” and his “to save you, I could do anything” - tears brimming in my eyes. And then when Amy decided to jump with him... because... she could not let him die and then go on living without him... “together or not at all” and I was actually sobbing (and totally ignoring the Doctor and River). It was all about the Ponds.  And I thought this was it – and would have been ok with that, as cheesy as it would have been.
But... I even have to say sadly, because I would have liked that ending better than the actual one... the paradox worked and they all ended up alive on the graveyard Amy and the Doctor had already ended up before. And there's River, being annoying again, referring to her parents as Amy and Rory once again... until Rory sees the gravestone with his name on it and gets zapped back in time unceremoniously by a weeping angel. Poof, just like that. No emotions. No time to feel anything about it. Just... poof and he's gone. (Hey Moffat, I thought the Ponds' departure was going to be “heartbreaking”? My heart was breaking in the scene before, not this one.) I admit, Amy deciding to let herself get zapped back by the angel to be with Rory, so she'll “be with him. Like I should be. Me and Rory together.” and her and the Doctor crying and the Doctor begging her to stay and Amy's “Raggedy Man. Goodbye” - that made me tear up a little again. But again, that was due to the brilliant and emotional acting of Karen Gillan and Matt Smith, because I found this second death/departure scene for the Ponds really unnecessary. It was like “we let the Ponds depart – twice within a few minutes”. Because one proper departure isn't enough. As I said, I was disappointed by this episode. I remember crying my heart out both in “Doomsday” when Rose got trapped in that parallel world and in “Journey's End” when the Doctor had to wipe Donna's memory. “The Angels Take Manhattan” just did not manage to tear at my heartstrings as much as the other departures did (except Martha, but she left voluntarily and happy). What made this one a bit more heartbreaking was the fact that Amy did end up with Rory but then had to outlive him by 5 years, which means she spent those years all alone, without him, her family or friends and with never seeing the Doctor again. And again: basically no reaction from River there, although these are her parents who just left. I don't know, was that Alex Kingston, River Song or Moffat's writing?
But if anyone thought this was the end of the episode now... nope, to take a bit more of emotion out of the episode, we make it back inside the TARDIS with the Doctor and River. The Doctor is moping, River has to drive. I was really glad that River did not take the Doctor up on his offer to become his new companion – I would have stopped watching the show at least until she was gone again. We also get to hear that the Doctor should not travel alone again – twice. Once by River in person and once in the Afterword that River told Amy to write into that Melody Malone novel. The Doctor going back to Central Park, finding the ripped out page (because he doesn't like endings) and basically reading Amy's farewell letter to him was a sweet idea again. I did not need him to revisit little Amelia waiting in her garden, though. I mean, the mention of Amy one day fighting pirates and saving a whale in outerspace and oh, Vincent van Gogh (!) was a nice touch, and also the hopeful note this episode was thus ending on, with Amelia's smiling face upon hearing the TARDIS noise. I just think the Doctor constantly visiting and revisiting is cramming a bit too much into that one event that has already been dealt with episodes ago. At one point, it's just enough.
I still would have wished for a more emotional last Ponds episode, because – I don't if that's me or really Moffat's writing – I find it terribly hard to feel as much as I used to since he took over. I know, this probably labels me as one of those irrational Moffat haters who mobbed the Moff off Twitter. But if that's really how it is, if people are not allowed to voice their critical opinions and personal feelings regarding a show they (still) love anymore, then... I don't know, something's going really really wrong. And I don't care what you think about me now. It's my opinion and I make use of a concept that's called freedom of speech and voice my opinion, no matter if Mr. Moffat likes it or not.

Once again, the most important things about this episode in short:


Plus Side:
the intro sequence
fedora hat!
weeping angels (usually)
the Chandler novel
Karen Gillan's and Arthur Darvill's acting
Arthur Darvill's outfit

Down Side:
River Song
lack of atmosphere after the intro sequence
plot holes/ inconsistent canon
the Doctor healing River with regeneration energy


And yes, I am gonna miss Amy and Rory, and even more so Karen and Arthur. But I'm really looking forward to the Christmas special and Jenna-Louise Coleman as a new companion, too. I just hope, now that the Ponds are gone, we saw the last of River Song too. Definitely not gonna miss her.